i.jnj!. BKE- KEEPERS j.l-A lEW. 



21 



About the year 188;^ I sold oue of my best 

 yellosv queens to L. L. Hoaru, of Wes Vir- 

 ginia, and he and myself liave been breediuy 

 audexchanf^iug more or less ever since, and 

 if I am not yreatly mistaken, all of the yel- 

 low bees of to-day haviuy Italian oriuiu, and 

 what are known as ' five I'anded bees,' came 

 directly or indirectly from either Mr. Hearu 

 or myself. If there is any admixture of Cy- 

 prian blood in these bees, 1 am not aware of 

 the fact, and it is imiJOssil)le as far as 1 am 

 concerned, unless, perchance, some Cyprian 

 bees have come from some distant breeder 

 into the woods hereabouts, which is a suppo- 

 sition too far-fetched to be worthy of notice. 

 Mr. Hearn is equally sure that there is no 

 Cyprian blood in his. But why waste time 

 on this, inasmuch as it is clearly proven that 

 we had bees whose abdomens were two- 

 thirds yellow prior to the first importation 

 of the Cyprian race. When I first saw an 

 Italian bee which showed more than the reg- 

 ulation three yellow bands, I said that there 

 was a mistake about the purity of the im- 

 ported Italians, and it will be found in back 

 volumes of the bee papers where I asked an 

 explanation of the term ' purity ' when used 

 in connection with Italian bees, for if a bee 

 showing THREE yellow bands was the simou 

 pure, what would a bee be called which 

 showed yellow on all the segments except the 

 last ? As no oue could tell, I have since 

 claimed the Italian bee as a thoroughbred, 

 and shall so continue to claim till someone 

 can prove totlie contrary. Again, I find you 

 saying, ' This craze for yellow bees is ruin- 

 ing our industry, and the sooner it is stop- 

 ped the better.' Now allow me to ask in all 

 candor what you mean ? Is itthecKAZEthat 

 is thus ruining our industry, or do you mean 

 that the yellow bees are doing this ? If the 

 former, then all I have got to say is that a 

 crazy person is liable to ruin any industry ; 

 but if the latter, then I call for the proof of 

 the assertion. 



Mr. Ira Barber, one of the largest honey 

 producers in New York State, states in print 

 that the five-banded bees give him the best 

 yields of honey of any bees he has, and 

 equally good testimonials can be found all 

 through the different bee journals. Person- 

 ally, I will state that these yellow bees out- 

 stripped anything in the line of imported or 

 hybrid bees I had during the past year, 1894, 

 and gave comb honey of the most snowy 

 whiteness, so much so that I have received 

 complimentary letters regarding the nice ap- 

 pearance of this honey from the commission 

 merchants receiving it. 



Again I find you saying, ' Who is to blame? 

 We s'y queen breeders are, because they 

 wanted to outdo their competitors by selling 

 beautiful bees with more good qualities than 

 their less colored sisters.' I cannot answer 

 to this assertion for anyone but myself, for 

 I do not know the motives prompting other 

 queen breeders : but for myself I say, mis- 

 taken again, and to prove that such is the 

 case, I quote the words which have been 

 kept standing in my circular from the first 

 issue to the present time, as follows : ' I do 

 not claim all the purity of stock that some 

 do, nor lay so much stress on golden bands, 



but I DO CLAIM that for honey 'pkouuoing my 

 bees are second to none.' Fifteen years of 

 reporting to the different bee papers, prior 

 to when I went into the queen rearing busi- 

 ness, substantiated the claim that my bees 

 were second to none as to honey gathering, 

 as scores of letters from pleased customers 

 have also substantiated that claim since. No, 

 Mr. Editor, I have not pushed these yellow 

 bees, but on the contrary kept the sentence 

 quoted above standing in my circular pur- 

 posely to prevent a craze in the yellow direc- 

 tion, for a craze in any direction is a thing 

 not to be desired. As to these yellow bees 

 being vicious I mu t admit that toward fall, 

 in cool and cloudy weather, some colonies 

 are. I find them very variable as to temper, 

 some of them being nearly as harmless as 

 files, while some colonies are quite resentful 

 when opening their hives after they have be- 

 come well supplied with honey. That some 

 of them are harmless as Hies will be readily 

 understood by turning to page 789 of Glean- 

 ings for 1893 and taking a look at little Ives 

 Atchley. who is holding a frame of bees 

 from a queen sent by myself to Sister Atch- 

 ley, and blowing the bees off the sealed hon- 

 ey so he can eat it while he is having his 

 picture taken. That they are ' lacking in 

 hardiness for winter,' as Mr. Root asserts on 

 page 877 of Gleanings for 1894, I will say 

 "hat I have not found them as good winter- 

 ers when left on the summer stands, as are 

 some of the darker strain^; from imported 

 stock, or hybrids, but with cellar wintering, 

 which the most of us here at the north adopt, 

 I see very little if any difference in favor of 

 either. I have tried in the above to be per- 

 fectly impartial and tell about things just as 

 I find them, for it is far from me to do or 

 say anything that will be other than to the 

 best interests of the whole fraternity. 

 Borodino, N. Y." 



A Condensed View of Current 

 Bee Writings. 



E. E. HASTY. 



FOR polite, left-handed faint praise, which 

 leaves a fellow gasping, and not know- 

 ing what hit him, commend us to experimen- 

 ter Taylor. Miller's feeders, and Heddon's 

 are nice — O so nice — but common milk pans 

 are better — never impart any taste to the 

 honey, and bees take the feed more readily. 

 But then this was feeJing back to finish out 

 sections. Feeding for winter supplies wOuld 

 be dift'erent womewhat, in that a slight taste 

 of musty wood would do no harm. 



Covering a feed pan just right is an impor- 

 tant matter, not yet worn out. Taylor says 

 new muslin cloth, one corner well daubed in 

 honey, to hang down outside the pan and 

 touch below. Not important to have the sur- 

 face of the feed all covered, but important 



